Famille Summerbelle

A day at the beach

Yesterday. A beautiful day on the beach 30mn away from Amsterdam.

The Creative Guide to Amsterdam

Dutch graphic designer Naomi den Besten from Pretty Unexpected has created this beautiful Creative Guide to Amsterdam packed with her favourite addresses: design book stores, concept stores, restaurants, art supplies shops and many more cool things to do in Amsterdam. Her creative guide is available here.
A new excuse to go on my bike to explore this city!

Letterpress Amsterdam

This morning I met up with Thomas Gravemaker the man behind the creative Letterpress Amsterdam studio in the centre of town. It's a fascinating workspace full of charm, old machines and wooden draws filled with handset metal types. Thomas has an extensive knowledge and experience in letterpress and graphic design. He worked for many years in London and Paris where he set up his own studio. I enjoyed speaking to him in French for an hour (I mainly speak English with everyone in Amsterdam so it was nice to speak with a (Dutch) francophile!)
The Letterpress Amsterdam studio produces bespoke prints, cards and invitations and also two-day intensive workshops or evening classes to learn the skills of letterpress printing.

Wishing you all a wonderful new year

from our new home, Amsterdam...

Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam

On saturday morning Ophelia and I went to the Stedelijk Museum to see the Kazimir Malevich and the Russian avant-garde exhibition.
It was an excuse to have some (quiet) time together to do some drawings.
Ophelia is such an easy going and curious child. She would just sit in front of a painting a draw it carefully without missing to write down the name of the artist and the title of the artwork. She really encouraged me to be less shy to draw in public!
We both love drawing but it is a rare moment as when her little brother is around he hasn't got the patience to sit and look at paintings. Fair enough, he is only 4 and he couldn't care less about an abstract art exhibition! He was very excited to go instead cycling sitting at the back of his daddy's bike.

Ivan Klyun. Suprematist study of color and form. 1917.